A Quiet Garden Scene

On this Easter Sunday, as we celebrated our Savior’s Resurrection, I recalled my mother’s account of an historic evening meeting at “The Garden Tomb,” as it was called, “owned and well maintained by the Dutch Reformed Church.  In September, 1972 they were still allowing some Latter-day Saint groups to hold meetings there … a beautiful setting, evocative of the Savior in whose name they met.”  The speakers were David Galbraith, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, President Harold B. Lee, and my father Ted.  “President Lee made the announcement in his talk and set apart David Galbraith to be the first president of the first Jerusalem Branch of the Church [of Jesus Christ] since the days of the early apostles.  Elder Hinckley set apart John Tvedtnes as first counselor, with the possibility of the second counselor being chosen from the BYU group” [40-50 students expected for a year-round Semester Abroad program.]  Special music included “I Am a Child of God” sung by the children, and “guitar-accompanied settings to several psalms in Hebrew, composed and sung by Abraham ben Abraham (the new Nazarite convert.)  President Lee said again that he felt impressed this was indeed the place where Christ was laid after his crucifixion and where he rose from the dead.  No one who was there at that meeting would ever forget the powerful witness of the Spirit that was also present.”
(Together – A Love Story, by Janath Russell Cannon & Ted Cannon, 1999, pages 133-34)